Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I have an innate sense of discomfort at all national holidays--mostly because I feel like I'm being told what to believe and how to respond to the events which the holidays celebrate. Point in case: Memorial Day.

Yes, it is about remembering those who gave their all in war --but first let's get real. Memorial Day was invented to remember Union soldiers (only), and it wasn't until after World War I that the holiday was expanded to included all the dead in all the wars.... All well and good, I suppose. But I hate war, and for me, honoring those who employ the means of force and death just runs against my grain.

My way out on Memorial Day? --I pray for those war dead, yes; but I pray for them in the suffering they endured and I pray for their conversion to peace.

I have heard a lot these days about supporting the troops. The best I can do is pray for them in the suffering they endure, and I pray for their conversion to peace.

I whole heartedly believe that war is never the best we can do, nor is it honorable. If we spent as much time, money and energy on finding resolutions through other means than war, I believe we could find them. Naive? Stupid? Wishful thinking? No, I call it Gospel thinking. And, yes, it would come at great cost. And most often, Gospel thinking calls for the same surrender Jesus discovered in the garden, on the cross, and in the tomb. Can't be done, you say? --Think again....

As to this current war --the statistics are touting more than 4,000 dead. That's bad enough. But, that only counts military-in-Iraq-dead. There are more than 500 dead from non-military contract company employees, and then there's the journalists, and our allies, and then, of course, there's Afghanistan.... and that's not counting the locals.

So, it's Memorial Day. Where is the holiday when we give thanks for all the conscientious objectors? I'm glad we had a baptism at church this past Sunday. We prayed for the war dead at the 8am service, but gave glory to God and increased the Body of Christ at the later service. Thanks be to God.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

It is an understatement to say that the Anglican Communion has been under a bit of duress lately. Most of the duress has focused on the consecration of +Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire and the place of gays and lesbians and their loving relationships in the Church at large. From where I sit, the Church at large has behaved shamefully through the whole mess. But there is one thing I have taken notice of, because I believe it will go right to the root of being part of the Anglican Communion and an Episcopalian—and this is the proposed Covenant which is being mulled about.

The proposed Covenant (currently called the St. Andrew’s Draft) calls for a statement which will delineate how the various parts of the Communion are to relate to one another, and what to do and how to do it if a part of the Communion seemingly violates the relationship. It has been proposed as a means to resolve how we deal with issues such as those in our present circumstance.

In all respects, the idea of a Covenant is totally foreign to the Anglican Communion –we have never claimed to be an international or even national church, we have never had a confession or covenant as the basis for our hanging out and eating with each other. We have always and only been a Communion of autonomous churches (dioceses)—we continue to hang out with each other and serve together in mission because we eat bread and wine together with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Christ’s name.

Frankly, the idea of a Covenant after several hundred years as a Communion seems to me to be kind of like asking for a pre-nuptial agreement after several decades of marriage. And, I don’t see any way in its current configuration that the Covenant doesn’t destroy our celebrated diversity as a communion, and engulf each autonomous church into a subservient position to an international church board largely ruled by clergy—mostly bishops. A very sad state of affairs. But maybe I’m wrong…..I hope so.

in the morningreflection in the large store window.behind it fake christmas snowfake cottony snowmen skating onfake mirror ice.spent lifein a world without snow.

Three windows downseeing us bundled in the cold and disfigured in the window lightI remember pointing at the red glass bowlfire hope kisses passion eye type redthe only color. ever.there she is I wanted to say.she likes glass. red.But I knew she was not.

Mary --the first priest... took ordinary bread and ordinary wine and made the real Body and Blood of Christ, the liberator, our passover. Blessed is she who believes that there will be a fulfillment of what has been spoken to her by the Lord.

Books for Sale at Amazon:

Wisdom from susankay

Some people think Jesus a softy because he kept speaking of love -- they obviously haven't tried it.

Dorothy Sayers (Creed or Chaos?)

Let us,

In Heaven's name,

drag out the Divine Drama

from under the dreadful accumulation

of slipshod thinking

and trashy sentiment heaped upon it,

and set it on an open stage

to startle the world

into some sort of vigorous reaction.

If the pious are the first to be shocked,

so much the worse for the pious

--others will enter the Kingdom of Heaven before them.

If all men are offended because of Christ,

let them be offended;

but where is the sense

of their being offended at something

that is not Christ

and is nothing like Him?

We do Him

singularly little honor by watering down

'til it could not offend a fly.

Surely it is not the

business of the Church

to adapt Christ to man,

but to adapt man to Christ.

Wise Words of Mark Harris

It is therefore of considerable help to those of us who despair for the Church and its life to know that our blindness is a product of no special sin or defect. We are imperfect because we see imperfectly, bound as we are to a calling that reaches beyond our ken.

A prayer for those serving in this endless war

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women at war. Defend them with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials; move their hearts so that the barriers which divide us may crumble and hatreds cease; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace.

St. Teresa d'Avila's 'Nada te Turbe'

Nada te Turbe

Let nothing disturb you,nothing afright you.

Whom God possesses

in nothing is wanting.

Alone God suffices.

All things are passing.God never ceases.Patient endurance attains all things.

it's margaret

this is my morning prayer blog where I ponder events in the world, our politics and other stuff. I have been told I am reverently irreverent. There we are. My prayer is enmeshed in my experience as an Episcopal priest in Eagle Butte, South Dakota on the Cheyenne River Reservation --and yes, I am a daughter of the wild west. God is good --all the time.

Eucharist as Revolution

Any act that provides the Bread of Heaven and the Cup of Salvation for all - and anyone who comes to the table - will always cause at least a stir.When one who has been excluded is the one who presides at that Eucharist, or when the one who has been excluded invites absolutely everyone to the Table to be fed, well, it becomes, in and of itself, the revolutionary act which Jesus intended it to be.

Elizabeth Kaeton, "Telling Secrets" Blog

Just sayin'....

for Paul, from Paul

Tradition and Traditionalism

Tradition is the living faith of dead people to which we must add our chapter while we have the gift of life. Traditionalism is the dead faith of living people who fear that if anything changes, the whole interprise will crumble. --Jaroslav Pelikan

Called to share what we have....

Revolutionary Heroes

Need I mention that this needless, counterproductive, illegal, and immoral invasion and occupation is really much, much larger than the AIG scandal?--Byzigenous BuddhapalianIn the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs.--Simone WeilIt does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.--Samuel Adams

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.--Thomas Jefferson

As I understand it, laws, commands, rules and edicts are for those who have not the light which makes plain the pathway.--Anne Hutchinson

What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it to make war.--Simone Weil

It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.--Jane Austen

A Gift from Grandmere Mimi:

I did not see sin: for I believe that it has no kind of substance nor any part of being nor could it be known except by the pain it causes. And this pain purges us and makes us know ourselves and to ask compassion.

Julian of Norwich

Mr. Wittgenstien

"I answer to Witty," he says.

See who matters

Mr. Witty in his glory

Love Conquers Hatred

"He abused me, he hit me, he oppressed me, he robbed me." Those who continue to hold such thoughts never still their hatred.

"He abused me, he hit me, he oppressed me, he robbed me." Those who do not hold such thoughts soon still their hatred.

For in this world hatred is never appeased by more hatred. It is love that conquers hatred. This is an eternal law.